Coming soon: Fujisan!

Well, with an end to the nightmare that is the swampy Japanese summer finally in sight, it's time to get back into fun things like climbing and riding...

First up will be a crack up Fujisan (Japan's highest mountain, of course) in about a week's time (weather-dependent). By all accounts it's a pretty dull climb so I'll be spicing it up with a bivi on the mountain. Photos to come when I come back.

Also looking forward to getting a bit of (rather mediocre) rock/gym time in and some quality biking, including another trip to Nara which I have planned for early October.

Following that, well... bring on the winter season!

Kyoto to Nara

Last week I decided I'd finally ride the route from Kyoto to Nara. A nice 45 km... apparently.

In reality it was 60 km. Which makes for a 120 km return journey. Combined with low-30s temperatures, burning sun and high humidity (i.e. typical Japanese summer conditions) it was quite a ride!

In Nara-koen (park) with the infamous (and very insistent) sacred deer.

Route info for the way to Nara can be found here:
http://kineticgps.com/route.php?r=cd44341cdb32bf1ead6770cbfbdcd5c2/120710-1013-Shijo-Omiya---Nara.kmz

Sadly my phone battery died on the way back so I don't have a GPS log for the whole trip, but you can essentially double the above.

I think 120 km on a fixed gear track bike (designed for racing at the velodrome) is pretty good going. Possibly a little stupid, but good fun* nonetheless.




* The three types of fun can be summed up thusly:
 - Type 1 Fun: Fun at the time, fun to think/talk about later
 - Type 2 Fun: Not fun at the time, but fun in retrospect
 - Type 3 Fun: Not fun at the time and not even fun in retrospect


I think this was somewhere around Type 2, so it fits in with a lot of winter climbing. Maybe I just have a penchant for suffering.

Back in the saddle!

In a slightly more upbeat follow-up to my last update, today was a lovely day (finally, it stopped raining!) and I took the opportunity to get back on my bike and get riding again.

Today's trip - the first since my little accident - was a 'gentle' 35km to see how things felt. Turns out things felt great - I could have gone and done it again when I got back, but it's probably wise to ease my broken body back into things...

So, 35km of gorgeous forested roads, surprisingly sustained climbing and putting geared roadies to shame on the aforementioned sustained climbs. And the destination was the beautiful Buddhist temple Kurama-dera, located up in the hills north of Kyoto.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours and I'm confident that I can get back into longer rides soon. Feels good!

We interrupt this transmission...

Just having a small break at the moment, mainly because my face decided to get into a fight with a road. As you might expect, the road won.

Result: A broken nose, split lip, four busted front teeth and a bunch of facial lacerations. Fun!

Thankfully two weeks on I look a lot better than this - pretty much back to normal, aside from some bruising and redness where things are still healing. Should be back climbing in a month or so (just have to be careful not to hit my nose for a few weeks, so it's probably not a good idea right now).

Rokko-san - May 2012

Managed to take a trip up to the Rokko-san climbing area near Kobe today. The idea was to do a little teaching, take a friend on their first ever outdoor climbs and, frankly, get back into climbing on rock myself (not since last July, unless you count a little winter mixed!).

View along part of the central section, looking out roughly towards Kobe

Taught A LOT and put it into practice on a couple of nice gentle routes (IUAA Grade III) which went really smoothly. Feels good to get back on rock, even at the easy end of the grade spectrum. I don't mind a nice gentle reintroduction, anyway!

First route was a corner/face route (the obvious large corner in the first photo below) and the second was a really rather nice crack for the grade, with actual real handjams to be had (second photo - the obvious feature!).

Also tried a III+ face route to the immediate right of the aforementioned crack but it was totally blank and unprotectable and not really ideal introduction fodder so I traversed across into the crack and just ran that route again from about halfway!

First route was the obvious large corner - grade III

Second route was this stunning crack, excellent at the grade (III) I thought. The III+ face route to the right is way blank and should possibly be bolted - looks like decent climbing though.

The day was notable for two particular reasons in addition to some good climbing. First was the excellent view of Kobe and the Osaka bay area, which was visible as the sun set (see the rather poor photo below).

View from the top of Rokko-san across to downtown Kobe (Sannomiya area in the centre).

The second reason was the presence of 'suzumebachi', or Japanese Giant Hornets. We had to deal with these devil-beasts a couple of times. There's nothing like having to freeze rigid in the middle of building a belay to save from getting stung by thumb-sized, lethal hornets. Note that the helpful gent in the videos below recommends running as fast as your legs will carry you if you disturb one. I wager this is not really possible while tied in at the top of a crag...

If one decides to sting you, it will inject a venom that can potentially kill you even if you are not allergic. In addition, the hornet releases a pheromone which attracts more angry hornets to your location, as if one of the bastards wasn't enough.

Suzumebachi kill more people every year in Japan than all other animals combined. These things are horrible, horrible creatures and should not exist.

You wouldn't get these in Snowdonia!